PhD scholarship: Plant-microbiome interactions and communication

Reference:
JOB567

Application deadline:
5 weeks 20 hours 33 minutes

The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) is a research institute within Western Sydney University. HIE has rapidly become a research leader in environmental and ecological research, with a strong reputation for delivering research outcomes of the highest quality. HIE houses a team of over 50 academic research scientists and over 50 PhD students with access to a unique suite of world-class research facilities.

We are seeking to appoint a PhD student to focus on research related to plant- microbiome interactions and communication as part of a CRC-CARE project.

The projects seek to identify (a) the linkage of plant and soil microbiomes to plant physiological conditions, plant performance and soil health, and (b) Develop microbial indicators for types and efficiency of bioremediation in field conditions.

The projects will use a range of analytical procedures including state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing, and soil microbiome and plant health measures to characterise how these variables impact microbiomes and their activities. The successful applicants will be trained in the broad areas of microbiomes and be able to analyse data from next-generation (amplicon and shotgun) sequencing. Statistical skills for analysing microbiome data are required, and relevant training will be provided to candidates with excellence in other areas of the projects.